


all we know for sure amidst this fading light (we'll not go home again)

by thatsparrow



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Gen, Medical Experimentation, Torture, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:40:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25698214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsparrow/pseuds/thatsparrow
Summary: As the days pass, Merrick tries to find all the ways that Booker's body won't heal.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Ocean Witch, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	all we know for sure amidst this fading light (we'll not go home again)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ba_lailah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ba_lailah/gifts).



> title from "the island" by the decemberists

As the days pass, Merrick tries to find all the ways that Booker's body won't heal.

He starts simple, severing Booker's limbs with apparati that range from sharpened surgical tools to rusted bone saws and every bladed approximation in between. "For the sake of science," Merrick says to him while cutting a ragged line through Booker's wrist. "Perhaps your healing ability is affected by the instrument, or its material. We won't know for sure without thorough investigation."

But Booker's body persists, fingers and toes and feet regrowing from the stumps, kneecaps and elbows piecing themselves back together after Merrick has tired of knives and moved on to a selection of broad-headed hammers and mallets. Once, when he decides Booker is staring at him with too much venom, Merrick takes a spoon and gouges out his left eye, dangling it by the optic nerve while the socket pools with blood. Booker can only determine the new one has grown in when his depth perception returns, and he can go back to counting the scant inches between Merrick's windpipe and his teeth.

Soon enough, Merrick starts cutting him open, too, measuring the seconds until the skin closes over, experimenting with leaving inorganic matter behind. He learns that Booker's biology can manage the needles and clamps and, once, wine opener that Merrick buries inside him like an Easter egg, so long as an exit wound remains. After that, it becomes a game to see how quickly he can stitch the incisions closed, how long and how painfully it takes Booker's body to find a solution.

"If it helps," Merrick says, tying knots in Booker's intestines before shoving them back into the cavity of his stomach, "I'll likely grow bored of you at some point."

Booker's throat goes raw from screaming while he waits.


End file.
